Film composer Elliot Goldenthal has been an underscorer worth keeping an eye on at least since 1989, when his Drugstore Cowboy and Pet Semetary both saw release. Of course, he’s not afraid of bombast, as his Titus with his partner, director Julie Taymor, showed. Now they’re back with Across the Universe, which sounds a bit like the Beatles channeled by Dennis Potter (nytimes.com):
Alone on a beach, Jude turns his pensive face to the camera and sings, “Is there anybody going to listen to my story?”with only faint wisps of melody sighing in the background. “It’s composed silence,”says Mr. Goldenthal, who arranged about 20 of the songs. (The rest were arranged by Teese Gohl and T Bone Burnett.) He achieved it with the glass harmonica, the ethereal-sounding instrument invented by Ben Franklin, and four cellos playing harmonics.